D. Patterns of gene flow in coral populations.
One of the other areas that has been spawned from my interests in coral bleaching is trying understand how coral populations are likely to tolerate predicted patterns of increasing coral bleaching. Particularly, we have become interested in the genetic and physiological diversity within and between coral populations. Also central to this issue is the connectivity of coral populations, in particular patterns of gene flow from areas where corals may be more tolerant (i.e. warmer, lower latitudes) to areas where they may be facing increasing stress from rising sea temperatures. My laboratory (in collaboration with D., Carter, Biochemistry, University of Sydney) use a combination of physiological and molecular techniques (18S, 28S RFLP, direct sequencing - - e.g. ITS4, Takabayashi et al. 1998; Loh et al 1998) to explore how functional diversity tracks genetic variability. We are currently doing studies over a wide geographical range, that includes sites in the Pacific (Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and northern
